Advice on upgrading to W7

My next computing nightmare is to go from Windows XP to Windows 7. I have two machines to do - her laptop and my daily workhorse PC. I don't know the best route to take as there seems to be three choices.
1. Buy the W7 disc
2. Take it to a shop to have it installed.
3. Get an upgrade somehow.

The first seems fraught with silliness.
The second means lugging the machines to the shop.

Does help if you have the disc and something goes wrong further down the line makes it easier to reload if needed

get upgrade cd

Just my opinion but if you are still running XP this would infer your computers are getting on a bit??
Therefore would it not make sense to get some computers that are more up to date and already have W7 installed?
Plenty going cheap now that W10 is out and if you're quick you can upgrade 7 to 10 for free.
As technology marches on I find that eventually older computers just won't run properly due to the demands of graphics and operating systems.
You could always put your existing stuff on an external hard drive and run it as and when.
Going back to installing W7 get a disc and put your stuff on a separate hard drive and do a clean install.
At least you know any importanf files etc. will be safe. I know you can partition off your existing files but things can go wrong lol

gilburton wrote: Just my opinion but if you are still running XP this would infer your computers are getting on a bit??

Plenty going cheap now that W10 is out and if you're quick you can upgrade 7 to 10 for free.

My PC is running XP cos I like the OS..
It's basically what Microsoft wants.......to obsolete kit prematurely. By withdrawing XP support and then giving Google a reason to kill Chrome it means many good operating PCs get shelved.
The way things go I'd be spending loads on new kit every two or so years, consoles and so on.
Not spring chickens but the one machine, a laptop, was a gaming machine and super spec in its day - well capable even today from three years or so back. The laptop is only used for bingo by SWOM.
The other machine is a very sound tower and again reasonably well equipped. If it can't cope maybe then I'll think about switching to my gaming PC as the primary tool.
I hate to see working tech go to waste so I'd rather drive it into the ground than scrap it prematurely.
So I've grabbed some install discs and will give them a try.
As long as the upgrade advisor tool says it is OK (which it does) IMHO it's worth a go.

windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/hel...o-windows-7#T1=tab02

My original old laptop was XP but I bought a better used one with W7 and my desktop was on W7 so I was using both systems with ease.
I never had a go on W8 but my daughters and a lot of other people didn't like it.
When the opportunity came along to upgrade to W10 for free (from 7) it was a very easy upgrade with no hitches.
Just 2 clicks (left or right)on the start menu brings up either the apps, as they call the old programs now, or all the windows functions.
I'm not keen on using the "Edge" search engine although you can change it or install Firefox or whatever.
I was quite happy on XP as it did all I wanted to do but eventually the time comes to upgrade either because the computer is getting past it or support stops.
Nothing wrong with W7 either though.